Afterwords
by Snickerer
Summary: 1500 words of vignettes of the possible after. Postseries.
1. Ahiru

Disclaimer: I own only this version of what might come after.

I tried to tell the plotbunnies that if I was going to do Tutu fic, I was going to do it actually set during the story. They made rude faces and threw postseries scenes at me instead. I don't know why I even bother trying to talk sense into them sometimes.

As usual, anonymous comments get answered in my profile.

* * *

It's not so bad, really.

True, Ahiru does miss it sometimes. Waking up in the loft, feeding the birds in the morning, the view across the courtyard, dancing with the rest of the class, Pique and Lillie's teasing, Neko-sensei's threats of marriage, being kept after class…well, maybe not the last so much, but it had become a comforting routine, after all.

Mostly she misses being able to talk. Being a girl, really.

Sometimes, she admits, she misses being Princess Tutu, the power, the ease of perfection.

But it had been borrowed power, and she'd always known she'd have to give it up, even if she had almost managed to forget. That's what she had said so long ago, wasn't it? That if she could just help the prince, see his smile when he was finally restored, then that was all she could ever hope for. She had said that he and Rue-chan looked good together.

Yes, perhaps she'd realized she'd lied to herself, at the bottom of the lake.

Perhaps she could have made things turn out differently.

But she remembers how she felt when she saw the prince's sad, lonely eyes.

Saw Mythos' insensitivity to the pain of his own injuries.

Saw the pain that Princess Kraehe lashed out to deny, even when it trembled in every line of her dance.

Saw Rue-chan's tears and anguished cry.

That would never have been better.

She'd wanted to make everything alright for them.

And she had gotten to see Mytho's smile, and Rue-chan's look of wonder, at the end. She'd made her decision on her own terms. She had done it because she wanted to. She'd had her pas de deux.

It is enough. She does not regret her choice. Would not, even if that had been all she had gotten for her trouble.

But it isn't. She's kept other thing from her time in the story that she would not have had otherwise, and she treasures them.

It isn't as though she can't dance anymore, after all. She's proved it. And if it isn't as perfect as Tutu's, well, neither had been Ahiru the girl's, and that wasn't the point of dancing anyway.

She still knows her way around the school, can still visit the familiar fountains, watch the dancers. And if she can't talk anymore, well, she can at least still convey her opinions with flaps and quacks and expressions. And she has people to whom they will matter.

On days like this, when the sun warms her feathers as she drowses, floating relaxed by the pier where the former knight sits, his quill scratching gently as he keeps his promise - his promises…

It's not bad at all.


	2. Mytho

Disclaimer: Same as before.

As usual, anonymous comments get answered in my profile.

* * *

Even after getting his entire heart back, Mytho finds it difficult to put a name to his feelings about Tutu.

He'd known he felt differently toward Fakir, Rue and Tutu even when only a few shards of his shattered emotions had been returned. But that toward Fakir, he now knows to call friendship, accompanied by understanding and gratitude, even some respect. Toward Rue there is love, no question about that. There are other feelings about what was done to her, but that has been dealt with and so is unimportant beside what she is now.

Tutu…is different again.

Back when she had been a mysterious shining figure returning to him what he had lost, he had been fascinated, curious. He was and is grateful for what she did for him.

But there is something more, something different from what he feels for Rue. Nor is it quite the protectiveness he feels toward the helpless. Tutu had not exactly been that, after all.

It has something of admiration, something of affection, yet is not entirely the same.

It is something that encompasses her as Ahiru the girl and a duck as well.

Eventually, he decides that fondness is the best word.


	3. Rue

Disclaimer: see first chapter.

As usual, anonymous comments get answered in my profile.

* * *

Rue goes to see Ahiru when she can. 

She still finds it a little odd to try to think of the little duck as Princess Tutu. But it's a lot less difficult to think of her as the bright-haired, wide-eyed, artless little annoyance of a girl who became her first friend. Because that's what she is. That's what she was, never giving up even when Rue didn't believe it, or when Rue thought she was someone else. And really, she's given Rue everything. It doesn't matter that there's no real way she could have chosen otherwise, being who she is; the choice still existed.

She does not bring Mytho, not on these visits. She goes with him too and they see Fakir as well, but those times are different. This is something she does for her own reasons, and she is not inclined to share.

The little yellow duck is always delighted to see Rue when she arrives at the lake. Rue cannot understand the flurry of quacks, but when she sees that familiar tilt of the little fluffy head and the bright smiling blue eyes, she can almost hear the happy exclamation of 'Rue-chan!'

She had been concerned that it would be awkward, for what could they do together, especially when Ahiru could no longer speak? But Ahiru has lost none of her penchant for surprise. She leads her to see things, like a patch of wildflowers, or a cove shimmering with the sparkling wings of dragonflies, or things she's found at the bottom of the lake or around the town. She takes her to visit other creatures from a distance, wing held conspiratorially before her beak. She shows off how she's practicing to get better at flying, tries to hover, and when she falls with an undignified squawk Rue catches her, laughing despite herself. Ahiru even manages to get her to come swimming a few times during the warmth of summer. When the little duck hides behind her, startled by the sudden appearance and croak of a great bullfrog, Rue can't help but feel both amused and a little touched at her obvious trust.

She finds she cannot think of the visits as an obligation, even a voluntary or wanted one.

And while Rue has never been one for talking, especially about how she feels, it's surprisingly easy to talk about her life to a little yellow ball of feathers nestled beside her as they sit beside a tree at the lakeside. And it's easy enough to read the little duck's nods and shakes of the head, to hear whether the quacks are of agreement or concern or negation. Longer responses are harder to interpret, but Rue thinks with a flash of wry humor that it's not as though she entirely understood what Ahiru was talking about when she was a girl. Not at the time, anyway.

Surely this cannot count as penance when it lifts shadows from her heart that she did not even realize still lingered.


	4. Fakir

Disclaimer: see previous chapter.

As usual, anonymous comments get answered in my profile.

* * *

Fakir had been oddly surprised when the ballet school was still there afterward, still more that he was still a student.

He supposes he had thought it a part of the dream, like his being a knight. He probably should have known better than to think his entire life with Charon had been distorted by the story. Maybe it just seemed strange for things to go on almost exactly as they had before, as if nothing had happened. Well, perhaps not quite the same. A different dance instructor, a few faces changed, a few faces missing.

And there's an added part to his routine, another place he frequents. He never was terribly fond of the dorms anyway, and he no longer has a roommate to keep an eye on. There's no real reason for him to frequent the library, either; he won't find anything to help him there. And the light's better at the lake, anyway.

Besides, he has promises to keep.

The stories need to be finished, after all. He needs to keep an eye on Kinkan, of course, but it seems to have eased back into reality well enough, though he still has to make sure the men of the books don't cause more trouble and put up with Aotoa. He actually spends more time making sure all is well in Mytho's kingdom. He is almost surprised it did not occur to them before; Mytho came from a story, so where exactly would that swan-drawn carriage carry them? Someone has to think of all the details of the running of a kingdom, and he's not certain that things like taxes and garbage disposal would occur to their swan prince. It seems that he is still looking after Mytho even now that he himself is no longer a knight, and the thought quirks his mouth up in a half-smile.

Add his own studies, and he is more than busy enough. He should probably find a way to keep Drosselmeyer busy, too, lest the old man start meddling again.

After he finishes all that…well.

Happily ever afters don't write themselves.


End file.
